Goku vs Freeza: Live action fan movie

[Kendamu]

How many times am I going to have to post this? (Rhetorical Question)

http://www.locoloboevents.com/mp3/scott ... s.128s.mp3

I may disagree with Victator Supreme and Rocketman, but I don't hate them or anything. That'd just be taking things way too seriously.

[mAcChaos]

It was good. Embarrassing, but good. ;P

[Rocketman]

How many times am I going to have to post this? (Rhetorical Question)

http://www.locoloboevents.com/mp3/scott ... s.128s.mp3

[Acid_Reign]

Unless you had a massive budget any live action Dragonball is going to look bad.

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. Big budgets certainly help, but they don't predetermine how well something's going to turn out. Many movies running on very little budgets have become great successes. Conversely, many high-budget movies have become total flops. The talent and heart of the individuals behind the production ultimately speak louder than any monetary figure does in the final release.

This movie in particular exceeds very well in preserving the "feel" of Dragon Ball Z, but suffers from inexperience on the part of the moviemakers. The latter is almost expected due to A.) the fact that it's fan-made to begin with, and B.) the fans' ages (they look to be about 16—how many of you were/are superb actors at this age?), and certainly acceptable in lieu of the former.

The greenscreen is a little overdone, but it allows for much more flexibility in post-production, especially considering the added dimensionality required of flying characters. It would have been a lot more difficult to create a digital composite out of both real-life and 3D models, which are needed to display a "dying planet" scenario like the one they showed. If in the first portion of the story, the characters are set against a live backdrop, and in the preceding portion they're suddenly set against a non-live one, the viewers would probably detect this sharp contrast and it could negatively impact the movie's overall look. Consistency is key.

The characters' looks are quite simply the best the moviemakers could do, Freeza being exceptional costume-wise albeit not fully convincing us he's actually of alien origin (Forget the hood; just look at those eyelashes! ). Gokuu, while not the proper body-type, at least has an accurate gi, though we are distracted from this by the oddly-styled hairdo. I think this would probably be the most difficult aspect of the character to pin down, which explains why the FOX version is nowhere close to the original. But they have professional hairstylists, whereas these guys presumably do not. So even though it's way off, it still invokes the same qualities, and I feel points should be awarded for trying (though I personally would have handled it differently).

The audio gets really bad toward the end, and the fault rests not only on the fact that the screams are really dragged out and fluctuate in tonality, but also that the audio wasn't properly-limited, resulting in a sound that's as grating on the speakers as it is the ears. This could easily have been remedied by toning it down in both the initial shooting and post.

The ending catches a lot of people off-guard because it's so atypical for a Dragon Ball Z movie; the fandom is used to Gokuu always winning, and versus Freeza, a fight a lot of us have replayed many times before, this is certainly almost always expected. The moviemakers are probably very aware of this, and decided to go with a surprise ending to make things interesting. Although alternate outcomes are often explored in Dragon Ball-related media, this one wasn't set up too well, because there was no indication that Gokuu was in any danger of losing; in fact, both parties seemed to be pretty equally-matched. It would've gone over better had they built up the tension some.

All things considered, I think this was a very decent attempt at a DBZ movie, and certainly worthy of note as it's more watchable than, and rivals the effects of, any other fan-made movie I've ever seen... including my own (Though, the one I did make was made a long time ago; today I would certainly do much better). To praise it as outstanding is a bit exaggerative, but to give it a completely bad wrap is being overly-critical. I'd probably give it a 6.5/10 overall.

[Victator Supreme]

If you are doing a Dragonball Z movie a big budget is a must. Otherwise the results are just going to be safd and embarrassing.

To me its like trying to a live action adaptation of the Jack Krby Thor or Fourth World. You are going to need a great deal of money and skill to do it well.

[Acid_Reign]

If you are doing a Dragonball Z movie a big budget is a must. Otherwise the results are just going to be safd and embarrassing.

To me its like trying to a live action adaptation of the Jack Krby Thor or Fourth World. You are going to need a great deal of money and skill to do it well.

Wow, talk about completely missing the point...

[Victator Supreme]

What point? Having a ton of money to do a proper Dragonball movie is a concrete reality.

[Acid_Reign]

What point? Having a ton of money to do a proper Dragonball movie is a concrete reality.

lmao, what the fuck are you even talking about? Concrete reality? For whom? The point was that good movies can be made on low budgets. You seem to think that this is impossible, which is just plain ridiculous.

[desirecampbell]

What point? Having a ton of money to do a proper Dragonball movie is a concrete reality.

lmao, what the fuck are you even talking about? Concrete reality? For whom? The point was that good movies can be made on low budgets. You seem to think that this is impossible, which is just plain ridiculous.

Agreed. Anyone with half an interest in film knows that skill, dedication, and hard work trump budget.

[Cartman Blues]

How many times am I going to have to post this? (Rhetorical Question)

http://www.locoloboevents.com/mp3/scott ... s.128s.mp3

I may disagree with Victator Supreme and Rocketman, but I don't hate them or anything. That'd just be taking things way too seriously.

I know....I'm just being stupid.

[Alice]

Agreed. Anyone with half an interest in film knows that skill, dedication, and hard work trump budget.

Definitely, though I would add good design to that. Exceptional design concepts can easily mask a low budget.

Personally, some of the design decisions they made in that movie weren't ones I would have made. There's some things I thought could have been improved on in the costumes and overall look and feel of it that wouldn't have changed the budget, but I thought they did a decent job considering they're probably aspiring film makers - not so much designers. They kept the overall palette of the characters and backgrounds pretty close to what it was in the animation, though.

I thought it was alright for a homage. Not genius, but okay, which is hard to pull off considering how far the source material is from reality.

[Xyex]

What point? Having a ton of money to do a proper Dragonball movie is a concrete reality.

lmao, what the fuck are you even talking about? Concrete reality? For whom? The point was that good movies can be made on low budgets. You seem to think that this is impossible, which is just plain ridiculous.

I don't believe the point he was trying to make was that you can't make a good movie on a low budget, or that a big budget gaurantees a good movie. Just that you can't make a believable DBZ movie on a small budget. You need the cash to properly do the effects to avoid things like giant ropes around actors waist's for flying scenes, blue tinted flashlight Kamehamehas, paper mache' Dragons, and so on.

[Agreed. Anyone with half an interest in film knows that skill, dedication, and hard work trump budget.

And that all the skill, dedication, and hard work can't stop a movie from looking campy and crappy if it doesn't have the budget to pull off the grandiose effects it attempts. No, a $50 billion dollar budget can't save a badly scripted, poorly acted, and half-hearted attempt at a movie, but nor can all the best talents make a crappy looking movie not look crappy.

[Acid_Reign]

I don't believe the point he was trying to make was that you can't make a good movie on a low budget, or that a big budget gaurantees a good movie. Just that you can't make a believable DBZ movie on a small budget. You need the cash to properly do the effects to avoid things like giant ropes around actors waist's for flying scenes, blue tinted flashlight Kamehamehas, paper mache' Dragons, and so on.

He didn't say that though. He said that without a MASSIVE budget, any DBZ movie is going to look bad. That precludes all DBZ live action movies, regardless of whether they were run on a zero-dollar budget, a shoestring budget, a small budget, a modest budget, an adequate budget, an average budget, an above-average budget, or even a "big" budget, since, according to Victator Supreme, any such movie, regardless of the talent involved, will fail without a "massive" (really big) budget.

Furthermore, "believable" is a word that I haven't seen him use. In fact, he hasn't given any justification whatsoever to these claims, other than that the outcome would inevitably be "sad and embarrassing" which leads me to ask: how does he know? How does he have any idea what every DBZ live action movie ever attempted to this day and in the future has or will turn out like? Never mind the fact that we're using relative terms here ("big" and "small" mean different things to different people), it's still simply too bold a statement to take seriously.

And that all the skill, dedication, and hard work can't stop a movie from looking campy and crappy if it doesn't have the budget to pull off the grandiose effects it attempts. No, a $50 billion dollar budget can't save a badly scripted, poorly acted, and half-hearted attempt at a movie, but nor can all the best talents make a crappy looking movie not look crappy.

Well, it certainly works both ways; that much is obvious. But what we're talking about here is an appropriate balance between talent and funds. Neither one of these things on their own is enough to support the weight of a good movie, and Dragon Ball Z is no special case in regard to either.

[Victator Supreme]

Have you read the comic or watched the show? Their is no way you are going to do an accurate adaptation of Dragonball that looks good. So you would be left with two options.

1. Change the story to scale it down a great deal.

2. Have an accurate movie that looks like crap.

Now I do not need a crystal ball to know that most licensed films on established characters are bad. Its not exactly a risky bet to say any movie based on Dragonball is going to be bad. If a good one comes out someday then super. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Acid_Reign]

Have you read the comic or watched the show? Their is no way you are going to do an accurate adaptation of Dragonball that looks good.

I have, and I don't see what makes them "incapable" of being accurately adapted. Do enlighten me.

1. Change the story to scale it down a great deal.

2. Have an accurate movie that looks like crap.

False dichotomy.

Now I do not need a crystal ball to know that most licensed films on established characters are bad. Its not exactly a risky bet to say any movie based on Dragonball is going to be bad. If a good one comes out someday then super. But I'm not holding my breath.

It isn't risky, it's just stupid.

[Victator Supreme]

Have you read the comic or watched the show? Their is no way you are going to do an accurate adaptation of Dragonball that looks good.

I have, and I don't see what makes them "incapable" of being accurately adapted. Do enlighten me.

1. Change the story to scale it down a great deal.

2. Have an accurate movie that looks like crap.

False dichotomy.

Now I do not need a crystal ball to know that most licensed films on established characters are bad. Its not exactly a risky bet to say any movie based on Dragonball is going to be bad. If a good one comes out someday then super. But I'm not holding my breath.

It isn't risky, it's just stupid.

It would require a great deal of special effects to do it right and not look like shit. Are you fucking thick between the ears or something?

I'm sorry to tell you but its not a false dichotomy. Its a concrete reality.

[VegettoEX]

You've very closely managed to ruin another thread. Let's keep a close eye on how we're acting, mmkay?

[Victator Supreme]

You've very closely managed to ruin another thread. Let's keep a close eye on how we're acting, mmkay?

Another?

[desirecampbell]

it's still simply too bold a statement to take seriously.

Exactly. Victator, you have to explain what you mean by your statements. What does 'massive' mean? When you say things like 'Have you read the comic or watched the show? Their is no way you are going to do an accurate adaptation of Dragonball that looks good.' you should give examples. It's not a 'concrete reality' if you can't come up with a couple specifics.

After you've come back with something to rebut the counter arguments you've received, you'll receive more counter arguments based on those specifics. This is what's called 'debate'.

[Victator Supreme]

How can I be more clear? It would take a bunch of special effects to make something like a super saiyan look good. Filming the Goku vs Frieza fight would be next to impossible. How does this need explaining?